The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-07-16

expected to interfere at every point, so
that the lightnings should neither in
flame, paralyze, nor kill; the floods and
waves not drown or devastate the
winds not ruin nor destroy the earth
quake neither shake nor swallow up;
the lava neither scorch nor whelm;
gravitation not bruise or kill climatic
changes not put us to our defenses
80 that men would praise the Lord for
his goodness, and for his wonderful
works to the children of men, in the
ordinance of natural law, and in the
bene6cent preparation of the earth for
their dwelling-place 1t may be that
hurt will come to us through the oper-
alton of the physical forces; we may
fall and be bruised; the winds may
sweep away our homes, or fire destroy;
the waves may overwhelm us; but
with what of blessing we have already
experienced, we may well say of
the Heavenly Father, in this regard,
Though he STAY us we will trust in
Him."
Sickness, pain, and death are usually
deemed especially mysterious in any
view of the Divine benevolence. There
are those who deny an intelligent Gre
ator, much more strongly loving
Father, because of the experience of
these asserted evils. Men do not hest
tate to say, that if they had had the
making of the world, such evils should
not exist. That is only saying that
they would have made the human body
and the natural laws different from the
present facts. The gigantic self-con-
ceit of such people may well amuse us.
But is this not abetted by Christian
people who magnify the mystery and
gloom Of death, and cite this and its
related ills as proof of Divine unkind-
ness to man, on account of his sin
The apostle, indeed, asserts that "death
passed upon all men, because all
have sinned;" but any one who reads
might see that he is speaking of spirit
ual, and not of material things of
matters relating to the soul, and not to
the body. The reconciliation, the ODE
dience, the disobedience, the sin, the
righteousness of which he treats, are
all of the spiritual nature Of man why
not the condemnation as well as the
justification, the death as we'll as the
life !?
The fact is, physical death was in
the world long before men. The infal-
lible record of the rocks so instruct us.
The long generations of animal life
which occupied the earth before it be-
came possible for man to live upon it,
came and fingered more or less briefly,
and then through death made way for
succeeding generations. 1t was ne
cessity of their ply being. It did
not come upon them for moral fault, Of
that, as of moral worth, they were in
capable. They died, because they were
material organisms, subject to disorgan-
ization and waste. The human body
dies, because it is material organism,
subject to disorganization and waste.
1t wears out by age, or it becomes dis
organized by accident or misuse. Again,
what would you have? Would you
have the human body composed of other
material than flesh and blood? What
would it be? Would it be some metal?
The infants heart throbs during the
first year of its earthly life $780, 900
times, in incessant movement; the
youth of twenty years has experienced
$50 ,000, 900 heart-throbs, that wonder
full organ doing its work by constant
energy; the old man of eighty numbers
its activity by billions, beyond the con-
ceptive, though not beyond the calcu-
lative powers of the human mind.
What pump could be made of toughest
steel that could outlast such an organ?
Besides, the human body is a self
repairing machine. 1t wastes with
every movement of muscle or nerve;
but by food it is restored, through the
activities with which it has been won
drously provided, until its powers are
finally exhausted. Is it at all surpris-
ing or mysterious that this result comes
to every human body sooner or later ?
1 protest against that theory of divine
Providence popularity held which looks
upon the Heavenly Father as bringing
about the death of his children, in any
case, by immediate and specific action.
He feeds the ravens, but not by putting
into their mouths the particular arti-
cles of their needful food. He clothes
the lilies, not by painting them out
wardly with their soft and rich hues.
He does these things through the oper-
alton of adequate and general law; of
law not exerted upon this or that indi-
vidual bird or plant, but upon the whole
world of birds and of plants. And so the
heavenly Father does not push the un-
fortunate victim of railroad accident
beneath the unheeding engine, or make
the little innocent child lose its balance
at the verge of the stream or the pond,
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